Betway Review

With over 10+ years in the online gambling business, Betway has grown from a shaky start to a leading powerhouse in the industry. As one of the leaders of the European market, Betway’s largest customer base comes from the UK, Spain, and Germany. If the name Betway sounds familiar, it’s probably due to their increased commitment to sponsorships including being the main sponsors of soccer team West Ham United FC, Premier League Darts, ESL UK Premiership, UK Championship Snooker, and several other leagues and teams. Betway has also signed a brand new slew of brand ambassadors including Mike Tindall (Rugby), Simon Hughes (cricket) and Richard Johnson (jockey).

The company currently holds licenses in eight different countries (United Kingdom, Malta, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, and Belgium) and is audited by eCOGRA. eCorgra is the independent authority for the online gaming industry, concerning fair gaming, player protection, and responsible operator conduct. They’re basically the trusted third party for making sure an online gambling site is doing what they’re supposed to and properly protecting their players. Their seal of approval should not be taken lightly.

If you’re looking for a new online gambling home, Betway could very well be the right fit for you. Before you make that decision, though, I want to make sure that you’re fully informed on every aspect of the site and the pros and cons of playing there. I can say that Betway is a happy home for a lot of our sports betting, poker player, and casino gambling friends. Take a few minutes and read this review and see if Betway is a great fit for you too.

The Evolution of Betway

As I mentioned earlier, Betway got off to a rocky start as a company. Bad management and a lack of solidified processes led to a lot of unhappy customers and complaints in their early years. Sportsbook Review – one of the only respected sportsbook rating sites in the industry (although it has been accused of false ratings every now and then) – gave Betway.com a D- rating and placed the site on its blacklist.

Why on Earth am I even wasting your time on a site like this? Because the site changed and we’re not talking about a little bit of change. They cleaned house and replaced management twice in five years and fully revamped their processes and their customer service. Fast forward to know, and you have one of the strongest companies in the industry that is not just with the industry standard, they exceed it. Sportsbook review has bumped them to a B- and removed them from the blacklist completely. Drastic measures helped Betway erase their slow start and grow into one of the industry giants poised to continue doing great things for their customers.

Sportsbook

Betway claims that bettors are able to wager on over 12,000 different markets at any given time through their sports betting portal. The main focus is European sports, but they do have quite a bit of action as well on US-based sports including the NBA, NFL, MLB, and the NBA.

One of the biggest additions to the sportsbook was the ability for bettors to wager on esports.In August 2015, Betway proclaimed itself to be the ”first major bookmaker to launch a dedicated eSports portal.” At the time of writing this review, you can bet on 10+ games via the eSports portal, like Call of Duty, CS: GO, Dota 2, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends, Starcraft 2, FIFA, and World of Tanks. If this is new to you, let’s clarify something. You are technically not betting on your ability to play the game, but you are betting on matches between high profile players. Don’t worry if you’re terrible at these games; you can still bet on them. Here’s a link to the esports section of ESPN if you’d like to find out some more information on what’s happening in esports today.

Another great feature of the sportsbook at Betway is the interface and statistics portal they have. The sportsbook has teamed up with Betradar to offer all sorts of game statistics to assist bettors, and they’ve put a lot of effort into their horse racing system in order to provide horse bettors with different kinds of useful content (just the fact that they’ve signed two jockeys as brand ambassadors tells you something).

The one area I see that Betway can improve their sportsbook is with the odds they are offering for certain sports. While they are usually spot on with the industry standard, they are occasionally not as inviting as some of the other online books. That being said, if you are sports betting, then you are hopefully taking our advice to be a member of several different books so that you can shop lines. If you’re just a recreational bettor, you honestly probably won’t even notice any difference.

Live Betting

Betway also has a ton of live betting, also known as in-game options for you to choose from. The layout and interface of the live betting section are also top-notch which really makes for a much better experience in our opinion. All of the different bet types are organized well and able to be sorted quickly through the click of a few buttons. This can be really handy when you’re trying to get in some quick bets during multiple games.

Sportsbook Bonus

The Betway sportsbook offers a 100% match bonus up to £50 for new players from the UK, Ireland, and Canada only. You’ll also need to opt-in to this promotion. It’s free to opt-in; you just need to make sure to do it to receive your bonus money.

They also have the following promotions currently running for sports betting. These look to be seasonal type promotions that may be around for a while or may come and go with new offers to replace. Either way, it’s a good sign to see that they do have several active promotions going for sports bettors.

Free Bet Club

If you make £25 worth of football multiple bets at odds of 2/1 or higher, you’ll receive £10 free each week – a £5 free bet on Saturday, and another one on Monday.

No Goal Special

If you make a win/draw/win bet on any NHL match, Betway will refund you losing bet up to £50 in the form of a free bet if your team fails to score a single goal. If you’re going to lose your bet, lose it well, and you’ll get rewarded.

NBA In-Play Special

If you place a live bet on any NBA game and you lose with the last score of the game being a 3-pointer, Betway will refund you with a free bet up to £25.

Poker

Betway Poker is on the Microgaming network which currently ranks as a top-10 poker network by traffic, getting around the same amount of traffic as Party Poker and Full Tilt Poker, although significantly less than PokerStars and 888 Poker. A lot of players cite this size site as optimal as there are plenty of players to get enough games in, but not too many players that the tournaments become overwhelming. Medium sized poker sites are also less likely to attract the big sharks as they tend to stay on the small handful of oversized major sites.

Microgaming consists of tens of online poker rooms in addition to Betway Poker – most notably 32Red, Betsafe, and Betsson. Being on the same network means they all use the same software that has been customized to match each site’s brand. It also means that you will get to play with players from these other smaller sites on the network. This usually means a lot more bad players also known as fish in the pond for you to go after.

The Microgaming software works and is easy to use. The interface is not overloaded with graphics and distracting animations, but instead, has just the right amount of graphics and a strong button scheme that makes choosing your actions easy and straight forward. The site is ideal for low to mid-stakes players as that is where the bulk of the traffic is. Blinds start from 0.01/0.02 and go up to 25/50 but, as mentioned, there’s rarely any traffic at the higher stakes. Most of the traffic concentrates around the low stakes games (up to 0.5/1).

The site also has poker tournaments that are much smaller in regards to the major sites. While some might see this as a negative, others see this as a luxury. If you’re a winning player, you will win these tournaments with much more frequency than you ever would on a major site. You’ll have fewer players to wade through, and the skill level of the players is significantly lower than on the major sites. You basically have to decide if you’re looking for an ego boost and all the glory or if you’re looking to make a lot of easy money.

Poker Bonus

The poker welcome bonus is a 200% first deposit bonus up to £750 (for the time being, new depositors will also qualify for six £1000 freerolls). You need to earn 100 Loyalty Points per every £1.50 in bonus cash, and you get 10 points for every £1 you’ve paid in rake or tournament fees, and the bonus cash is released in 1% increments. The minimum deposit amount that qualifies for the bonus is £10, and the bonus expires within 60 days of the deposit.

I wouldn’t recommend fretting too much about the details of the bonus offer and how to clear it. Ideally, you should just deposit the amount you want to play with and play the volume you want to play. You will inevitably clear some or the entire bonus. This will protect you from playing too long of sessions or too many tables at once just to try and clear the bonus. We’ve seen players lose more than the bonus was worth just trying to clear it. I recommend you just play normally and take the bonus as, well, a bonus.

Betway also has several weekly freerolls running that you are more than welcome to play in. A freeroll is a free entry tournament where the casino puts up free money into the prize pool. The entry into the freerolls is free, but you do need to fulfill some requirements to be allowed to claim your free entry. Here is the list of current freerolls as well as the requirement to get into the tournament.

£3000 Sunday Freeroll – Play 100 raked hands within the last seven days, and you’re eligible

£1000 Saturday Freeroll – Play 25 raked hands within the last 24 hours to be eligible

£300 Happy Saturday Freeroll – Play 1 raked hand within the last seven days and you’re eligible

£150 Survivor Freeroll – No requirements!

£500 Freeroll – Play 1 raked hand within the last 14 days, and you’re eligible

£50 Freerolls – There are about five of these every day that has no requirements to get into

Betway also has a poker specific VIP program that allows players to get rakeback from their account. What is rakeback? When the casino runs a poker tournament or plays a cash game hand, they take a small portion of the pot as their fee. This is known as the rake. Casinos and poker rooms will sometimes offer players the chance to get some of that money back at the end of the day, week, or month. With a good rakeback deal, you can break even in the game (not be winning or losing) and still be profitable because you’ll get a piece of the rakeback.

Casino

Betway Casino also operates on Microgaming software (one of the most reputable online casino software providers in the world). Microgaming casinos often have the biggest progressive jackpots in the world, and in fact, the biggest of them all was awarded at betway.com.

That’s right – Betway Casino holds the Guinness record for the “largest jackpot payout in an online slot machine game ever.” Jon Heywood, a Cheshire soldier, won the amount via ”Mega Moolah” slot machine in October 2015, after depositing a mere £30 and placing a £0.25 bet.

Game Selection

Game selection on Betway is amazing, almost too amazing with all of the different options they have. What is most impressive is how they keep all of these options nicely organized in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

Regarding table games, they had the following:

10 Variations of Roulette

44 Variations of Blackjack

8 Variations of Live Dealer Games

17 Variations of other popular table games including the following:

3 Card Poker

3 Card Poker Gold Series

Craps

Progressive Cyberstud Poker

Highspeed Poker

3 Card Poker Gold Series (Variation)

Poker Pursuit

Red Dog

LIVE 3 Card Poker

LIVE Caribbean Stud

LIVE Ultimate Texas Hold ‘em

High Limit Baccarat

Sic Bo

Pai Gow Poker

Triple Pocket Hold ‘em Poker

Baccarat Gold Series

Baccarat

Regarding video poker, they had the following:

59 Variations of Video Poker

Regarding slots, they had the following:

Over 400 Variations of 5 Reel and 3 Reel Slots including many classic and retro games

The quality of the slot games was also top notch. It wasn’t games that were just knock offs, but they are the real versions of some of the most popular slot games. Again, it was impressive how well these games were organized and easy to navigate to. It also looked like they had several new games and appear to be constantly updating their array of choices. This site is definitely a win for slot players.

Mobile

Betway does offer a great mobile platform for playing for both iOS (Apple) and Android. These are actual native apps that you can download and play from through your phone. If you don’t want to download any apps, you can still play through your browser as the website is mobile friendly. I would recommend the app, though, if you are going to play from a phone or tablet as it is designed with that purpose in mind.

Casino Welcome Bonus

Betway does offer a welcome bonus that can be split up across three different deposits. The fact that it can be split up is a perk as it doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the deal if you only want to load a little money on the site at first and test it out. Here are the deposit bonuses available on your first three deposits at Betway:

1st Deposit – 100% Match Bonus up to £250

2nd Deposit – 25% Match Bonus up to £250

3rd Deposit – 50% Match Bonus up to £500

There are of course requirements to play through your bonus to unlock it. This is standard across all online gambling sites, so it’s nothing to bat an eye at.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Betway has several different deposit and withdrawal methods available for players. By several, I mean way more than a lot of sites even in the European market. The options varied slightly by which country you were in, but for the most part, they were the same. If you’re in a smaller, less populated country, I recommend just double checking with support to confirm which options are in place for you.

Deposit Options Included:

Visa

Visa Electron

Mastercard

Maestro

Direct Bank Transfer

ecoPayz

Neteller

PayPal

PaysafeCard

Skrill

EntroPay Card

All of these options were available for withdrawals as well except for Maestro. All deposits are instant with every option listed above. Wait times on withdrawals were not readily available, but judging by the positive remarks in forums and on other review sites that deal specifically with withdrawal times, everything appears to be well under a week with some options being instant after the site approves your cashout. I would prefer to see this information posted but everything looks to be on the up and up and good to go here.

Who Can Play

While Betway is available to a lot of countries worldwide, they really seem to focus their efforts and promotions onto several specific countries. The countries they approve and seem to cater to most are the following:

Austria

Brazil

Canada

Czech Republic

Finland

Germany

Ireland

Latvia

Liechtenstein

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Russian Federation

Sweden

Switzerland

United Kingdom

Players from the following countries can also play but need to log in from their country-specific site.

Belgium

Denmark

Italy

Schleswig-Holstein (coming soon)

Spain

Countries that Currently Can’t Play on Betway

Unfortunately, there are several countries that are not allowed to play on any of Betway’s sites. If you’re not in one of these countries, this should come as a good sign. This means that the site is playing by the rules and is focused on staying in line with the rules and regulations of international gaming. This means your money and your bets are that much safer. If you do happen to live in one of these countries, this is obviously not great news. It’s not the end of the road, though, as legislation is always changing and a lot of these countries could easily be added to the approved list on any given day.

Afghanistan

Angola

Australia

Belgium

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria

Denmark

France and Its Outlying Territories

German State (Bundesland) of Schleswig-Holstein

Greece

Greenland

Guyana

Hungary

Iran

Iraq

Israel

Italy

Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Lithuania

Mexico

Myanmar

North Korea

Papua New Guinea

Philippines’

Romania

Russia

Singapore

South Africa

Syria

Turkey

Uganda

The USA and Its Outlying Territories

Vanuatu

Yemen

Conclusion

Overall, I are really pleased with the product and services that Betway offers. The big standouts for us are the game options available (500+), a multitude of deposit and withdrawal options, and clear licensing and regulatory oversight that ensure the safety and security of the operation and your money. What good is a site if you can’t trust that it is fair and that your money is safe? The bonus structures are also nice, and it’s a fresh sight to see that they have bonuses that are specific to the different segments of the site.

Poker is on the Microgaming network which gets plenty of traffic to keep you busy but isn’t as huge as the mega sites. Yes, this means some smaller prize pools in the tournaments and not as much action at the very high stakes, but it also means that there are less good players attracted and you can win the tournaments more frequently without having to wade through so many players.

The bottom line is that Betway looks like an awesome all-in-one online gambling option.